Today's poetry title is perfect for those days when you need to lighten up your life.
Michael Rosen
Poetry Picture Book
For ages 6 to 8
Candlewick Press, 2012, 978-0-7636-6248-6
Many people think that poetry, real poetry, has to be
‘deep and meaningful,’ and that poems should explore important themes and
emotions. Certainly some poetry is serious and thought provoking, but there are
also those poems that serve another purpose: they amuse us and make us laugh.
Often these poems look at everyday people in everyday situations, and they show
us how absurd life sometimes is.
For this
collection, Michael Rosen has created some decidedly quirky poems, which are
paired with Quentin Blake’s decidedly delightful illustrations. The poems are
divided into four chapters: The Breakfast Book (Hard-boiled legs), The Seaside
book (Smelly Jelly Smelly Fish), The Doctor Book (Spollyollydiddlytiddlyitis),
and The Bedtime Book (Under the Bed). In each chapter, readers will find many individual
poems, and they will also find some recurring sections.
In the “What
if…” section in each chapter, we are presented with some truly peculiar
scenarios. Another section - “Things we say” or “Things they say” or “Things
you say” - shows us what people tend to say when they are in a certain
situation. For example, I am sure that every parent has heard their child say
“Mom, I suddenly feel all right again” when they get to the doctor’s office.
Oh, and let’s not forget the times when children say “Just one more story” at
bedtime.
In every chapter
you will also meet Nat and Anna, siblings who squabble, argue, fight, and
support one another only as siblings can. Young readers will surely laugh when
they see what this big sister and little brother get up to.
Though many of
the poems in this book are of the tickle-the-funny-bone variety, there are some
that are more contemplative. In Over my
Toes, we are reminded of what it feels like to have “the soft sea wash”
over our toes as we stand on a beach. In Feeling
Ill, we join a child who is stuck in bed, bored to tears and “waiting for
the clock to change.”
Children and
adults alike are going to enjoy sharing these poems, laughing at the what ifs,
thinking about what people say in certain situations, and marveling at how they
behave. Humans really are quite extraordinary creatures.